A Traveling Sales Werewolf

In the mid 1800s the countryside of Spain was plagued by unusual murders and wolf attacks. My first of three conclusive thoughts was, “Wolves are mugging people, no doubt.”

But the wolfiness going on was merely a by-product of the murders, wherein the wolves would eat the remains and make the cops think the dead people were made that way by the hungry animals.

But one detective noticed hidden within the mangled flesh areas were very precise surgical incisions. Since there was nary a hairy enrolled in medical school, the crimes were obviously committed by a human. (My second conclusive thought placed the blame squarely on Jack The Ripper. Apparently, it was not him, dang it.)

Enter Romasanta, a traveling soap salesman who makes his product out of human body fat. Ick. Since this was the stinky 1800s and bathing was done on special occasions (like the changing of the seasons), his soap was in demand. After he seduces a rippingly hot supermodel (bath tub scene – great rewind material), she discovers he killed her sisters and was more than likely using their soapy butt fat to wash herself. Eeww! So she tells the police and a manhunt ensues.

While the wolf/werewolf attacks are PG graphic, it’s the scene of the fat and naked guy running through the woods with his Willy Wonka flapping around the way a chubby snake does when it sticks its head out the window of a car speeding down the freeway that’s the most unsettling.

Romasanta is tried in court and he tells them he couldn’t help killing 15 people because he’s a werewolf. His attorney successfully gets him off the hook under the “bonkers” defense strategy. I need this guy’s number.

While Romasanta doesn’t morph into a werewolf in a silly fur coat, they do show him changing into a human from a real wolf form. I felt this was pretty neat.

A few problems, however: Romasanta did not have an accent befitting someone from Spain. Nor did the cops. Nor did the wolves, which didn’t sound the least bit Spanish when they howled (example: “El Barko! El Barko!”). My last conclusive thought was that Romasanta (2004), which was based on a true story (Werewolf of Allariz, 1853), could’ve used more soap bubbles.